Takayama

Located at the northeast part of Nagano Prefecture, 20 kilometers eastward from Nagano City, Takayama-mura is a beautiful village of about 7,000 people. The village lies next to the town of Obuse as well as the village of Tsumagoi in Gunma Prefecture. It has a long history of apple and grape growing because of the climate condition of high altitude, low precipitation amounting only to 1,000 millimeters annually, and long daylight hours. In recent years, tourism promotion using the wines brewed with the wine grapes produced in Takayama-mura is on the rise.

Takayama-mura’s natural condition is favorable for producing apples and grapes. The difference in elevation is from 400 meters to 2,000 meters, the gap of temperature between day and night is large, and an alluvial fan spreads toward west, which takes in a lot of sunshine. Such climate is ideal for winemaking and is similar to some of the famous wine-producing regions such as Champagne and Burgundy of France. For the past few years, increasing number of wine grape growers are moving in, contributing to promote the village as a wine-producing area and reviving the abandoned farmland as vineyards. Shinshu Takayama Winery, which was established in October 2016, not only makes and sells wines with the grapes produced in the village but also plays a central role as a company which nurtures vintners. The company is enthusiastic about establishing the Takayama Brand to be accepted in Europe and also the rest of the world in the future.
Takayama-mura joined the Most Beautiful Villages in Japan in 2010. Its registered resources are the mountain scenery with ancient-old trees of Shidare cherry, the valley of Matsukawa, which is popular for its beautiful autumnal leaves, the natural beauty of Mt. Kasadake’s foot with Yamada Farm’s cattle grazing to create a good-old pastoral view, and its environmentally-friendly agriculture which is gentle both to people and nature.
There are eight hot springs of different spring qualities dotted along the Matsukawa valley, forming Shinshu Takayama Hot Spring Resort Area. Yamada Onsen with 200 years of history has long been particularly popular as a therapeutic hot spring. Among the fans in the past were many celebrated Japanese writers including Ogai Mori and Akiko Yosano.

Interviewed in October, 2017